This document outlines a plan for rethinking literacy education to better prepare students for communicating in the digital age. It proposes incorporating visual literacy and analyzing different media like films, photographs and hypertext in addition to printed texts. The goal is to develop students' ability to critically analyze various forms of communication and move toward a "new literacy" suited to the changing technology landscape. Teachers are encouraged to rework their lesson plans and curriculum to include visual literacy and expose students to new types of texts and skills for interpreting different media. The document concludes by emphasizing the need for educators to adapt literacy instruction in order to help students learn to read both past and present forms of communication.

1. Working Towards a
New Literacy
in the English Classroom:
Rethinking Concepts about
Reading

2. Goals and Objectives
• to reframe thinking about reading skills in
the English classroom through research
• to reframe notions of what a text is through
activities
• to provide an opportunity to plan or rework
existing lessons with new literacy in mind
• toprovide teachers with resources on the
new literacy

3. “...most young people need much
more experience than they
currently get in the use of visual
images as means of expression,
communication, and exploration.”
Paul Messaris, University of Penn.

4. Why are we Rethinking
Ways of Reading?
• because traditional concepts of
reading involve the printed word
• andprint media are becoming less
important in the communication of
messages for our students
• and communication is primarily a
visual system

5. Reading the
Traditional Way
Activity: With your copy of William
Faulkner’s novel, The Sound and the
Fury, begin reading Chapter 1
making note of the meaning.
Be prepared to discuss what is
happening in the narrative.

6. Reading in Hypertext
• Activity: at your computer, go to http:
www.usask.ca/english/faulkner/ and read the
same text of Chapter 1
• What happens to your reading of the
traditional print text compared with the
same words in this hypertext?

7. Reading a Short Film
Activity: At your computer, watch
the following narrative, a short
film, and for discussion purposes
focus on the way the narrative
develops.
“How They Get There” by Spike Jonze
http://www.ifilm.com/video/2480132/artist/240829

8. Post-Reading Discussion
How does the narrative of this
text develop?
What is the message or the theme
of this text?
Comment on the similarities and
differences of reading a traditional
print text, and reading this film.

9. Break Time

10. Changing Concepts of
Reading and Writing
Activity: At your computer, read the
articles at following sites, and be
prepared to discuss your reading.
http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/
2007/05/10/interview-with-jaime-alejandro-
rodriguez-ruiz/
http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/
2007/04/28/ficlets-literary-lego/

11. Evolving Thoughts Towards a
New Literacy...
The ways in which language is used
changes with the form of the
medium, or the container of the
message.
Technological change has created
new containers of language.

12. Implications of
a New Literacy on Teaching
If language use has changed, and
the containers of language have
changed, then the skills required to
read that language must also have
changed.

13. A Slide show within
a Slide show......
Activity: At your computer, watch
“Literacy (r)evolutions” by Jess Laccetti
@ http://www.slideshare.net/JessL/
literacy-revolutions-jess-laccetti-
slideshare. Stop before viewing the
concluding short film, “Web 2.0...”

14. “Literacy (r)evolutions”
• Discuss and critically evaluate your reading
of this text with the whole group.

15. Lunch Time

16. The New Literacy in a
Short Film
Activity: Before viewing “ Web 2.0 ...
The Machine is Us/ing Us” complete
the Previewing Questions on your
handout. At the conclusion of
“Literacy (r)evolutions”, click on this
film, then complete the post-viewing
questions, and be prepared to
discuss your reading of the film.

17. Towards a New Literacy in the
English Classroom
The containers of
language have
changed, so the
conventions of
communication
have changed to
include visual
representation.

18. Readers need to
understand how to
critically read visual
content. They need
instruction in visual
literacy.
What do you read from
this visual text?

22. Reading as a Visual System:
Visual Literacy in the
English Classroom

23. In groups of three, divide the reading of:
“The Visual Literacy White Paper”
“Through a Class Darkly:Visual Literacy in the
Classroom”
“Visual Communication as a Primary System”.
• skim the articles
• discuss and summarize interesting points
• brainstorm ideas for ways to class
incorporate
visual literacy into an English
• present your ideas to the whole group

24. Visual Literacy in Your
Classroom
Activity: At your computer visit some of the
following sites, and develop a personalized
plan to implement visual literacy according to
your current lesson plans and comfort level.

25. Web sites on Visual Literacy
• http://www.kn.att.com/wired/21stcent/
visual.html
• http://www.fno.org/PL/vislit.htm - a student
lesson online
• http://www.ivla.org/portal/intro.htm - a
collection of links from the International
Visual Literacy Association
• http://www.csuohio.edu/history/exercise/
vlehome.html - an online exercise for
professionals
• http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/vlintro0602

26. The New Literacy from a
Post-Secondary Perspective
Activity: With a partner, visit the following site
and click the mouse to move from frame to
frame, reading as you move.
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/talks/usc/
index.htm
How many popular culture references, or
allusions that can you identify in this text?

27. Ending at the Beginning:
Concluding Thoughts on
Moving Towards
a New Literacy
in the English Classroom

28. As teachers of language, we need
to rethink the use of language in
order to give our students the skills
to read the past and the present.

29. The conventions of language have
changed with new containers of
communication.

30. Reading in hypertext is not the
same reading skill as reading a
book.

31. Films and photographs are texts
that need to be read.

32. Visual Literacy is a skill that moves
students towards the new literacy,
toward the critical reading of the
world around them.

33. “Our habit of thinking of
communication as consisting
exclusively of language has delayed
the study of communication.”
Sebeok, 1991

37. Artwork by Jayne Wilson,
“Do you say it best when you
say nothing at all” 2005

38. Thank you for viewing, for listening,
and for reading as we move towards
a New Literacy both inside and
outside the English classroom.
By Melanie White
Prepared for Nipissing University, Honours Specialist
English: Supervisor, Robert Brady